Excessive Fee Consent Sanction Draws Dissent

The Louisiana Supreme Court accepted a consent discipline of an 18-month suspension with all but six months stayed and probation in a matter where the attorney had  “charged and failed to account for an excessive legal fee.”

Justice Crichton dissented

Respondent was tasked with a relatively uncomplicated and singular client request involving appointment of a successor trustee for a special needs trust for a client’s grandson. This appears to have been an uncontested maneuver, one with which a bank, as original designated trustee, ultimately agreed. Despite the rather innocuous nature of this task, respondent charged the client grandmother a fee of over $100,000.00, which was to be paid out of the special needs trust. Not only is this fee outrageously unreasonable and unconscionable, respondent was unable to provide any contemporaneous billing records to support this fee.

In light of respondent’s grave misconduct as presented to this Court, I would reject the Joint Petition for Consent Discipline and impose a sanction, at a minimum, of suspension for one year and one day.

(Mike Frisch)